Wellness Lifestyles

A motivational, strength-based program of education, music, and movement as a first step to exercise and wellness. Group counseling sessions in Eugene are available.

The Program:

A 90 minute guided, supported, education and movement group counseling experience. Movement is to melodies, gentle rhythms, and world beat. The participants begin with a guest topic and representative from the recreational department. This could include smoking cessation, yoga, nutrition, sports and athletics, walking, weightlifting, relaxation techniques, or another topic. Next they choose their level of body movement. This ranges from chair movements for people with limited mobility or motivation, to full body movement dance. Breathing techniques, mindfulness, individuality, boundaries, relational skills, play, and motion health are among the skills taught, developing movement as a practice. Wellness Lifestyles is an early intervention wellness program designed to make wellness enjoyable and reduce attrition rates for people with mental illness and addictions entering exercise programs.

The Benefit:

Exercise greatly enhances holistic recovery from addiction and mental health illnesses and improves related struggles with obesity, and relationships. Wellness Lifestyles is a first step motivational counseling program celebrating their abilities and introducing participants to the joy and personal expression which leads to more robust exercise pursuits. This brings creativity, music, and one's own body as a natural healing tool towards an addiction free lifestyle by increasing self-esteem, hyperthermic, endorphins, and distraction levels. Recent data confirms exercise as a leading anti-depressant and also reduces stress levels and anxiety. Exercise is a core recovery strategy as participants experience positive somatic experiences that treat the whole person rather than symptoms. Music and other wellness strategies can be effective elements of person-centered mental health and addictions recovery, and are integral to this program

The Need

Studies are showing people with addictions and mental health diagnoses are dying 25 to 34 years earlier than the population as a whole (Oregon Department of Human Services, 2008). This population is particularly vulnerable to disease. Topping the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention list of primary risk factors for all chronic diseases are: sedentary lifestyle, smoking, and poor nutrition. These conditions are interconnected and preventable. Heart disease, obesity and diabetes are among the diseases at epidemic levels among people with mental illness and addiction. Institutional and low income settings are especially lacking art and exercise.

“If a seed has to grow with a rock on top of it, or in deep shade, or without enough water, it won't unfold into a healthy, full-sized plant. It will try hard because the drive to become what you were meant to be is incredibly powerful. But at best it will become a sort of ghost of what it could be: pale, undersized, drooping...In the age of ecology, we ourselves are the only creature we would ever expect to flourish in an environment that does not give us what we need! We wouldn't order a spider to spin an exquisite web in empty space, or a seed to sprout on a bare desktop. And yet that is exactly what we have been demanding of ourselves.” -Barbara Sher, Wishcraft